Circle spinning out Poloniex; new exchange plans to spend $100M and not serve US clients

Quick Take

  • Poloniex is spinning out of Circle
  • In 2018 Circle acquired Poloniex for a reported $400M
After just one year, Circle is parting ways with Poloniex, the cryptocurrency exchange it bought for a heaping $400 million. 

In a blog post, cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced that it is spinning out from Circle into a new company and planning to spend over $100 million to develop this new exchange platform. 

Under the new name "Polo Digital Asset," the new platform will not serve U.S. customers. According to the blog post, beginning today, U.S. users will no longer be able to create new accounts on Poloniex. Trading on the exchange will become unavailable to U.S. customers starting Nov. 1.

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The exchange said that the separation will "free us to focus on the needs of global crypto traders with new features, assets, and services." Meanwhile, Circle will focus on building its stablecoin business USDC and the equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest, said Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in a separate blog post

Circle declined to comment on the specific terms of the spinoff. 


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About Author

Celia joined The Block as a reporter after earning her BA in the History of Science from the University of Chicago. Having spent years pondering over why 2+2 cannot equal 5, she is interested in the history and philosophy of mathematics, computation, and cryptography. She also had a very brief stint at Crunchbase News.